Violence, Collision Kill 3 U.S. Soldiers in Iraq

BAGHDAD — Three more American soldiers have died in Iraq, two from hostile fire and one in a traffic accident, military officials said Monday.

One soldier from Task Force Olympia, based in northern Iraq, died Monday of wounds suffered in an attack on his patrol in Mosul, the U.S. Central Command said.

It did not say when the attack occurred.

A 1st Infantry Division soldier was killed Saturday when a roadside bomb exploded in Samarra, and a second soldier was wounded in the blast.

A soldier from the 16th Military Police Brigade died Sunday night when his Humvee collided with an American tank, the command said.

About 770 U.S. service members have died since President Bush launched the Iraq war in March 2003, most of them after the end of major combat was declared.

Insurgents in the country’s south bombed an oil pipeline, setting off a huge fire and slashing daily exports by about 25%, officials said Monday.

Firefighters were still battling the blaze, which erupted Saturday after guerrillas attacked the pipeline, which carries oil to a terminal south of the city of Basra.

Jabbar Leaby, director general of Iraq’s Southern Oil Co., said engineers had managed to divert oil to a second line. But an official for the State Oil Marketing Pipeline told Dow Jones Newswires that the alternate line was too small to handle the additional flow, resulting in the export cut.

Elsewhere, Al Jazeera television broadcast a videotaped threat from a previously unknown group that said Americans, Britons and Kuwaitis in Basra would be targeted for kidnapping and assassination.

The speaker, who said he represented a group called Al Taff, and two armed men flanking him were masked.

Al Taff refers to a 7th century battle near Karbala.